Landslide in southwestern Colombia kills 17
BOGOTA: Seventeen people have been killed and five injured in a landslide in the southwestern Colombian province of Cauca, the country’s disaster relief agency said on Sunday.
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The landslide, which was caused by heavy rains, occurred early on Sunday in a rural area of Rosas municipality, the agency said in a statement.
On Sunday evening an agency spokesman said the death toll had risen from the initial figure of 14.
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Five people were hospitalised and eight houses were destroyed. A portion of the Pan-American Highway was also blocked by the landslide.
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President Ivan Duque will visit the area on Sunday evening with the housing and transport ministers to meet with relief officials, his office said in a statement.
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Landslides are common in mountainous Colombia, especially during rainy season and in areas where precarious informal housing and narrow roadways are constructed on deforested Andean hillsides.
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